I’ve had June 10th circled on my calender for about a month now. On June 10th, 24 very accomplished chefs will compete on behalf of a charity on a new “Top Chef” spin off called “Top Chef: Masters“. It’ll be a brand new cast, new host (Sorry Kelly Choi, but no one can replace Padma), new judges, everything. There’re a few very well known chefs (some have also made Top Chef appearances) – Hubert Keller, Wylie Dufresne, Roy Yamaguchi, Rick Bayless, Rick Moonen, & John Besh just to name the few that I know off the top of my head. Here are a few things I’m looking for on the show:

1. Since they are all very well known chefs (at least amongst foodies), it’ll be interesting to see what the chefs can do without their supporting cast (sous chefs, pastry chefs, etc.) While I don’t think they’ll throw everyone in a knife skills competition right away, I think that those who aren’t in a restaurant everyday would have a significant disadvantage.
2. Some of these chefs are specialists in a particular type of cuisine, it’ll be interesting to see how they’ll handle the curve balls that TC like to throw at the contestants.
3. It’ll be interesting to see how some of these very successful chefs handle the criticisms of the judges. Generally, chefs (especially the highly successful ones) have a certain type of personality and for the most part, I don’t think they’ll handle the criticisms well (no matter how credible the judges are).
4. I feel that there’s a wider range as far as the age range of the contestants. It’ll be interesting to see how experience will play in and also how innovation (challenging/redefining old concepts) will play into the contest.

Top Chef Masters airs on Bravo at 10pm EST on Wednesday.